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Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, will enter the Bosnian market this year by introducing flights to Banja Luka. It comes following protracted talks with the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The carrier will introduce two weekly services from Charleroi Airport in Belgium, each Monday and Friday, starting October 29, as well as from Memmingen in Germany from October 30, each Tuesday and Saturday. The Prime Minister of the entity, Željka Cvijanović, has said that "several additional destinations will also be launched" by the airline in the coming period. Tickets for the new routes are already available for purchase through the carrier's website.
Commenting on the new route, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Executive for Belgium, Helene Begasse, said, “We are pleased to announce a new Brussels Charleroi to Banja Luka route commencing this November. This new route marks Ryanair's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and wi…

The world's largest carrier, American Airlines, is considering introducing seasonal flights to Dubrovnik. According to the "TangoSix" portal, the company is in talks with the airport over a seasonal service from Philadelphia. A decision on the matter is expected within the next month. American operates a number of seasonal flights to Europe from its Philadelphia hub including Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Prague, Shannon and Venice. This year, the airline expanded its reach from Philadelphia into Europe with seasonal flights to Budapest and Prague. Both are operated by its Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The move is seen as affirming American’s commitment to Philadelphia as a trans-Atlantic gateway.
Dubrovnik Airport has identified the United States and South Korea as two far-away markets which could sustain services to the coastal city. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Dubrovnik Airport's General Manager, Frano Luetić, said, "These two far-…

Hainan Airlines to launch Belgrade service

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Hainan Airlines has confirmed it plans to launch flights between Beijing and Belgrade after officials from parent company HNA Group signed a letter of intent with the Serbian government last week for the establishment of services, the set-up of a flight training centre in the country, and unveiled plans to invest and run Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The airline has conducted a feasibility study into flights between China and Serbia and also plans to either establish or run an existing flight training centre in the country in order to meet global demand for new pilots over the next fifty years. Furthermore, it was recently revealed that the HNA Group is bidding as part of a Chinese consortium for the 25-year concession of Belgrade Airport.

Details of the new agreement with the HNA Group, as well as Hainan Airlines' planned service to Belgrade are expected to be revealed at the end of the week, when Serbia's President travels to China for a two-day state visit. HNA Group is a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in China with businesses spanning across aviation, holding, tourism, capital and logistics. As of December 2016, HNA Group has a fleet of over 1.250 aircraft, operates 1.100 domestic and international routes, flies to over 270 cities and serves 92 million passengers annually. It operates and manages Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, Deer Jet, Lucky Air, West Air, Fuzhou Airlines, Urumqi Air, Beibu Gulf Airlines, Yangtze River Airlines, Guilin Airlines, Chang’an Airlines, Africa World Airlines, and Aigle Azur. Furthermore, it runs HNA Tourism, which will be selling joint tour packages to Serbia and the region, primarily Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Preparations are already underway for the new flights between Beijing and Belgrade. In 2016, some 24.000 Chinese tourists visited Serbia, which is not a large number considering China's size, but for Serbia the trend is encouraging as in 2011 only 12.000 tourists from China came to Serbia. "We hope that the visa free regime, the establishment of a direct flight, joint presentation with our neighbours, as well as the strengthening of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe will have an influence on Chinese tourists to perceive this region as more attractive than before", Milica Čubrilo, the Secretary for Tourism in Serbia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. Miodrag Popović, the head of the Tourist Organisation of the City of Belgrade, noted, "Preparations are ongoing at Belgrade's hotels, restaurants and all those linked to the service and hospitality sectors for the arrival of Chinese guests. Research has provided us with information about what interests Chinese guests the most and how they should be treated, from the most banal such as to avoid anything connected to the number four, to more serious issues, such as that one needs to have Chinese food for guests who stay longer, together with local specialties that they may wish to taste. Chinese guests also like to take photos and we need to provide them with enough places to capture their memories", he said. Flights between Beijing and Belgrade last operated in 2000 when they were run by JAT Yugoslav Airlines. Serbia and China abolished visa restrictions for each other's nationals at the start of the year.

You conspiracy theorists should really agree on a common approach. First your were preaching how the airport was already given to Arabs - and then we saw no Arab bidder in the tender. Then you preached how it 100% goes to a French bidder, no doubt - and now you are sure it will go to China so that you can prove some conspiracy behind Hainan's announcement.

I would suggest you finally pick your favorite conspiracy and stick to it.

It's not a conspiracy theory, it's speculation. Learn the right terminology before coming here trying to be smart.

The French were never a serious contender, they were just rumored to be interested.

The Arabs showed real interest at some point.

Given how much China has invested into Serbia I am sure it would make perfect sense that they be among the top pics. Especially since the government is trying to get them to take over Bor, one of the biggest loss making companies in the country.

LOL Vučić said "he will try to find subisidies", which actually means that the deal most likels depends on that, is now being spinned as "he was just saying", "why would chienese take money" and "they have enough of their own money, why would they need serbian money"

SU to go down to one daily? In what universe exactly? Do you realize how big the market between Belgrade and Moscow is? Not to mention that SVO is a transit hub not only for China but for the CIS as well. If anything, SU might lose 10 to 15 passengers per flight. Worse case scenario they have a lower LF on their A320.

Obviously there's no fixed date, as that will be announced during the official statement, following Nikolic's return from China this week. The flights are not subsidised. So go hate your country in your own little corner of frustrations, as I doubt you are from ours.

Back in the day JU had many wide body flights. I'm concerned that HNA will become the only wide body flight out BEG. Let's be realistic JFK won't be around much longer. Big loss maker grappling JUs finances

At least Air Serbia's business model makes more sense than JAT's did. Also, JU today is far more financially conscious than it was back then. Not to mention that less money is spent on it today than 30 years ago. ;)

Cool!! So far Montenegro has joined Serbia in offering joint packages. Let's hope those deals with Macedonia, Hungary and Bosnia are concluded soon. Once that happens these flights will become an absolute hit.

They had 320 10 weekly last winter as well, so nothing to do with EK. Plus, there is more business during summer so any extra seat is welcomed, especially since QR doesn't have available wide bodies to place on ZAG during those peaks.

I'm a huge critic of this government so please don't take this the wrong way but I don't think there has ever been a more aviation oriented government in Serbia then this one. Again not endorsing them, will vote against them on Sunday.

I'm generally very suspicious when it comes to any government meddling into economy. That said, and especially since this is connected to a long term infrastructure project, I wish the best of luck to Belgrade in realizing these flights, as well as the concession contract!! Any information, or speculation as to when this could happen?

We should have more details in about a week from today once our president returns from China. Mind you, our president was the host of the Chinese president's dad when he was part of the Chinese delegation that visited Yugoslavia some decades ago.

When the current president of China was in Belgrade, Nikolic, as a gift, gave him their picture from back then.

Thanks! I thought maybe someone knew something more about it already. Ok, and if theoretically everything goes as fast as possible, when do you suppose the concession contract could be signed and the airport operations turned over to the new management?

This is great news for BEG airport, but surely "not bigger than JU project" :-)

Obviously, the more detailed information about these flights will be known in 1 week time after Serbian President returns from China,but even at this moment we can say it is big step for BEG and for whole region.

BEG will cement its position as the biggest and most important of all Ex-Yu airports.

I truly hope that JU will code-share with Hainan that would bring success to both companies.

I think that it will be with a stop-over. May be at OTP. I don't see how BEG can sustain alone this line. I think the way the Qatar Airways introduced their flights is the best. They were having stop-overs until the lines got sustainable.

I just don't get it, why doesn't Air Serbia start the Beijing flights? They have the plane and even if it's a subsidized route wouldn't it be better for Serbia to subsidize their own company instead of Chinese? If the politicians want these flights so badly and the public on their side where's the problem?

Air Serbia now wants to codeshare with other airlines instead of sending own aircraft to China. Hogan said he wants more American tourists in Belgrade so the next step could be subsidy to Delta or American Airlines to start flights from Chicago or Los Angeles to Belgrade.

Well, the JFK was just a rumor, I think, not sure. But if they reported on it, it was because there really were negotiations going on and they had it confirmed. Don't remember it tho. But when it comes to the Chinese, that I do remember and they reported on it because the Beijing Capital Airlines, a subsidiary of Hainan, had themselves confirmed the plans to launch direct Zagreb flights in June 2017. Now that clearly isn't going to happen this June, or otherwise we'd already have a concrete, official announcement and the tickets offered in the system. Maybe it fell through, maybe it's been postponed. Happens.

Now BEG needs AS to launch ORD, YYZ, IKA, and regional flights to PRN, and year round Euro flights to LED, KBP, MUC, CAI. And possibly Krasnodar, Odessa, Baku, Tripoli, and Spain, and maybe even NCE, would be nice. ;-)

They can offer incentives/discounts for AS (and other airlines for that matter) on a sliding scale. It would be in the interest of the concessionaire to have as many flights as possible. More flights means more charges per pax. Plus more tax per pax for gov.

Therein lies the problem. Deep discounts at BEG are not enough for Air Serbia to expand widebody fleet but they would attract Hainans, Air Transats and Emirates to BEG. With discounts, tourist promotions and incentives other airlines would eat Air Serbia's lunch on busiest long haul destinations from Belgrade. That would be great for concession and BEG airport passenger numbers but not so good for Air Serbia long haul plans.

Nice one BEG. I checked that BJS is connected to 6 European cities: TXL, SVO, PRG, MAN, PRG & LED so BEG would nicely fit being in the southern part of Europe compared to the rest.Greetings from Sofia.

BJS (or PEK) is connected with almost every major city in Europe, not just these six. BJS is actually the code for all airports in Beijing metro area (LON for London, e.g.), but PEK is the airport code for Beijing Capital airport. That's why you might have missed dozens of other European destinations out of Beijing.

To BEG probably not but to TIV maybe so. I saw lots of cars with Estonian license plates (of course, these people are actually Russians living in Estonia) when I was on the Montenegrin coast last summer so I think a TLL - TIV could very well be an untapped potential line

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